The U.S. has long used trade as a “strategic tool” for decades, and Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee, stated on Sunday that he supports President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to put tariffs on a number of countries, including Canada and Mexico.
“Access to our economy is a privilege,” Hagerty stated in an interview with Kristen Welker, moderator of “Meet the Press” on NBC News. “If you think about it, we’ve made access to this economy a strategic tool ever since World War II.”
“Right now, the United States has the most open market of any major economy in the world, we need to take a very hard look at countries that don’t have our best interests at heart, countries that are allowing our borders to be violated, and use those tariffs as a tool to achieve our ends,” Hagerty said.
His remarks follow Trump’s announcements during the past week that he would propose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and that he would slap 100% tariffs on BRICS nations if they attempted to establish their own currency for trade.
World leaders reacted quickly to the threats, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visiting Mar-a-Lago and Trump speaking with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum over the phone.
Asserting that Canada and Mexico are exhibiting “behavior” that is “allowing fentanyl to flood into our border, that is allowing people to flood into our country, millions of people, undocumented, illegal people,” Hagerty supported Trump’s immigration policy.
“President Trump is going to use every tool at his disposal to put an end to it. And using tariffs as one of those weapons is, in my opinion, perfectly justified. “It’s an important tool,” Hagerty continued.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also discussed Trump’s tariff measures on “Meet the Press” minutes after Hagerty’s appearance, calling them “a distraction.”
“Donald Trump has no idea how to use tariffs in order to create American jobs,” Murphy stated. “The tariffs are a distraction from what the real agenda is going to be to be able to use government in order to dramatically increase the wealth of his cabinet and the friends of that cabinet.”
Hagerty also discussed two Trump cabinet picks that have caused some senators to express concern: former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whom the president-elect appointed to be Director of National Intelligence, and Kash Patel, a former official in the Trump administration, whom Trump appointed on Saturday to head the Federal Bureau of Intelligence.
“There are serious problems at the FBI, the American public knows it,” Hagerty said Welker, praising Patel, who has minimal experience in federal law enforcement. They anticipate significant change, and Kash Patel is the ideal candidate to bring about that change.
Concerns regarding Gabbard, who disclosed in 2017 that she had a covert meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad while on a regional visit—a meeting that is being reexamined in light of the rebel advance in Aleppo—were also addressed by the senator.
Gabbard, a Democrat in Congress, has also been charged with repeating Russian propaganda.
Hagerty brushed off worries about Gabbard, stating that he will still vote for her.
“I’m not familiar with the meetings that she’s had, and I certainly don’t have to agree with every point of every one of President Trump’s nominees, but I am here to support them,” he stated.
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